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Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Sign #2987432 That I Need a Life

As I surfing the Internet last night, I was shocked, nay, horrified at the discovery I made.

My home town, Entwistle, does not have an entry in Wikipedia, but Entwistle's long-time rival, Evansburg, DOES have an entry!

This will not do. If Evansburg has an entry in Wikipedia, then Entwistle deserves one. So, I have resolved to write Entwistle's entry in Wikipedia, AND make it more ass-kicking than Evansburg's entry.

(Something that will be really easy to do, as the Evansburg entry is only one sentence long.)

So, for the past 18 hours, I have been immersed in research, studying the history of Entwistle. The most valuable resource has been The Foley Trail, a book detailing the history of Entwistle, that was put out by the local historical society about 20 years ago. Entwistle was officially incorporated as a village on March 29, 1909. The first elections were held in April, and the village charter was adopted in May. The town kind of sprang up as railway construction halted here while they built our massive, beautiful railway trestle.

Of course, I'll have to have a section on the trestle for my entry. Dad actually dug up a lot of information on the Pembina River Trestle back when he was the mayor of Entwistle. He's going to be my main source on that one. Construction on the bridge started in 1908, and finished in 1911. It was actually made in Scotland. The engineers took their measurments, and then sent them to an engineering firm in Scotland. The entire bridge was pre-fabricated in Scotland, and completely assembled in Scotland to make sure everything fit. Then, the bridge was dismantled and shipped to Entwistle piece-by-piece, and was then re-assembled over the Pembina River. And, the engineers' measurments were so precise, that no modifications were required to make the bridge fit. And that bridge stands to this very day, and is still used multiple times a day by the CNR.

When Dad told me that story, I often wondered what kind of information could be gleaned about the Highway Bridge, which sits right next to the Railway Trestle. Well, The Foley Trail is filled with info on the Highway Bridge. It was a very big deal in its day. The Highway Bridge was built from 1961 to 1962. It opened to traffic in 1962, but a grand opening was held on July 24, 1963. 1500 people turned out for the grand opening. Speeches were given by the mayors of Entwislte and Evansburg, the MLA, the Deputy Minister of Highways, and representatives of the senior citizens and youth. Then, the ribbon was cut by the Minister of Highways, and there was a massive parade across the bridge!

And I'll also have to include an entry about Entwistle being the Diamond Capital of Canada. That's another thing Dad discovered when he was mayor. The largest diamond ever found in Canada was found in the banks of the Pembina River, about 2-km south of town. So, since Dad was the mayor and every village in the province was looking for some kind of tourist hook at the time, Entwistle proclaimed itself "the Diamond Capital of Canada."

And I'll be sure to include this all in my Wikipedia entry. IN YOUR FACE, EVANSBURG!